How To Be and Understand Fangirls
by Snowdrop Pax
Summary: What the title says


Fangirling/understanding fangirls is hard work. By now fangirling shoud be a sport. Of couse there are fanboys but they are in a smaller community than the fangirls and are less 'all up in it'. The key to fangirls is FGL, that stands for Fangirl Language. FGL is more that quoting what your a fan of. Fangirls have a language, each abreaviation means something. I will explain in a minute but first we need to talk about Fanfiction. This is were FGL comes in handy, FGL can be used as a warning for what a Fic holds or what you can expect. If you are however talking outside of the web and a fangirl/you mentions a Fanfic or that she writes about what she is a fan of, do NOT refer to her/your writing as Fanfictions. This is VERY insulting, fangirls belive that what they fan in is real so calling them fanfictions underlines that you think the world they fan is fiction. Is doesn't matter if you do think it is fiction, fangirls get offended by it, so it would be better to call them fics or Fanfics. Ok I know how that sounds "I cant call them fanfictions, but I can call them fic, witch is sort of Fiction, and fanfic, witch is sort for fanfiction." but no. Fic is your first FGL, fic in the FGC, Fangirl Community, means writing, or book, something that you/her wrote in a world you/her fan. Now some crutual one to fanfics

 **PWP:** Plot? What plot? or Porn Without Plot. As you can tell this kind of fic is porn. So looking for this is Fanfics is a must.

 **Verse:** Short for universe, this is only there if there is more that one type for example Transformers Movieverse is the Michal Bay movie of the Transformers, while G1verse would be the original cartoon.

 **AU (Alternative Universe):** Taking characters out of their original setting and putting them somewhere else or changing something else fundamental to the universe. Think Hogwarts in space, or "World War 2 Never Happened

 **Crossover fic:** Mixing two or more sources together. Think Transformers meets ICarly.

 **Mary Sue:** An original character who serves as an obvious wish-fulfillment stand-in for an author, in that she has no real flaws and is universally beloved. Mary Sues are universally denigrated but serve an important role as a formative narrative of female empowerment, which is why The Mary Sue adopted it as a call of arms to its audience of female fangeeks. The male version is a Gary Stu.

 **Gen:** Short for "General" themes, genfic is the term for a story that doesn't have a romantic pairing or plot as one of its driving aims.

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Now that you know some FGL lets move on to Parings and romance. To be a fangirl you have to understand this, and you have to write some sort of paring at least three times. Here is some FGL parings

 **Pairing:** A couple you want to get together. If this is a widely known paring it will have a CN, Combined Name. Example: John/Sherlock or Johnlock

 **Ship:** Alternate name for a pairing, short for 'relationship.' Example: "My ship is SasuNaru." Ship can also be used as a verb, e.g. "I ship Alicia/Kalinda," or, "Which characters are you shipping this week?"

 **OTP:** The One True Pairing, the pairing that stands above all others as your most beloved (in this canon, at least). Example: "Arthur/Eames is my OTP." The triad version is OT3.

 **Slash:** Fanwork with a queer romantic pairing. Slash typically queers the identity of characters who are presented as straight in canon. "Slash" usually refers to men in a queer fic storyline (m/m), but can also refer to women. The alternative term for female pairings (f/f) is "femslash," but some women prefer to use "slash" to refer collectively to all queer pairings.

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Now Fandom is the next thing. "Fandom" refers to communities of active fans. Activity means you're not just passively receiving media. You're writing, remixing, and drawing responses to what you've received. You're going to a convention or wear a costume to a midnight showing of your beloved franchise. You're arguing with friends over _Twilight_ versus _Harry Potter_. _Creative Commons_ author Lawrence Lessig explains it, in his description of remix culture, as the difference between a read-only culture and a read/write culture.

Simply put, the couch potato no longer exists.

There is more to being a fangirl then writing fanfics, here are somethings to get into to be a UF, Ultimate Fan.

 **Cosplay:** What you do at Halloween, basically, only cosplayers do more of it and more often.

 **Crafts:** Fandom based crafts, are becoming increasingly popular, with its own unique genre of fandom creation.

 **Doujinshi:** Fanart-based fan comics, most often based off a previously existing manga or anime, or even another doujinshi. Doujinshi circles are increasingly popular, and doujinshi conventions in Japan routinely draw crowds to rival the biggest fan cons in the U.S.

 **Fanart:** This is art about an original source. Fan art has many forms, Digital, Photography, tradlisnal and so on

 **Fanvids:** Vids, usually set to music. The practice of making fanvids is called viding.

 **Meta:** This is non-fiction writing about canon or other fanworks.

 **Recs:** Short for "recommendation." Reccing other people's fanwork is a long and valued fandom tradition.

 **RPGs:** Role-playing games are popular with more than just gamers.

Fandoms have been sorted out as well

 **Realistic Fandom:** RF's are mostly TV shows but they are movies as well, but if it is a movie it will most likely be a series of movies, the Harry Potter. RF is where the film was filmed by actors on a set and doesn't cotantin much CGI Green screen or anything like that and the characters of the show are people who film other things.

 **Devoted Fandom:** When your not devoted to a show or movie, but to a person, this is what people most people think fangirls to be, a clothes tearing, screaming, I will were your face on a shirt fangirl.

 **Animated Fandom:** AF is a cartoon and anime fandom, this fandom is very big on cosplayers.

 **Mixed Fandom:** MF is when there is a movie and a cartoon in the same fandom, like transformers, they made four movies, and serval series of cartoons.

 **Film Fandom:** FF, the movie fandom gets along with DF the best because of the fact that actors star in the films.

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Communities are next, each fangirl has a community, I have been referring to them as 'the thing you fan' up until now. So If you are a Transformers fan, your in the TFC, Transformers community. A community is a void full of the Fangirls who are fans of that specific thing. You can be part of multiple communities but to be a UF it would be better to fangirl only one thing.

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This will help you better be/understand fangirls! Thanks for reading


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